A Study in Perspective
by Song of the Skies
Summary: On lightning, chakra, and why Azula is actually better than Zuko.


Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Note: Edited for a minor mistake.

0.Prologue

_You will not be able to master lightning until you have dealt with the turmoil inside you. _Uncle Iroh to Zuko, Bitter Work

Chi flows through the body like an underground river. Some of it breaks off from the rest, and enters the chakra system. There it is replenished, and grows stronger before rejoining the rest of the chi. It gains energy by pooling in each chakra, before flowing off to the next one. If the trait that empowers the chakra is missing, then the chi cannot pool and the energy there is lost. But if the chakra is blocked, then only a little chi can get through,

In terms of skill, speed, and power, Azula is better than Zuko. But that is not why she can bend lightning and Zuko can't. It is because _her_ chakra pools flow, while _his_ are dammed and nothing can get through.

I. Earth

_The Earth Chakra, located at the base of the spine, deals with survival and is blocked by fear._

Azula believes she is the best, and so she fears almost nothing. Not death, not being bested. Because the first one is a long way off and the later could never happen. The only fear she has all at are split second emotions felt in the heat of battle. They disappear when the battle is over(victorious) and she barely knows they exist. It doesn't really count, because what doesn't exist can't affect you.

Zuko, on the other hand, has a great deal to fear about. Fears of never being good enough, of being a disappointment. Fears of never capturing the Avatar, of never regaining his throne and honor.They cloud his judgementand drag him down. If he could throw them away, then he would be a better person for it. But he can't. He has had them so long that they have become a part of who he is.

II. Water

_The Water Chakra, located in the lower back, deals with pleasure and is blocked by guilt._

Azula has no guilt. What could she be guilty over? She had never regretted anything in her life, so she can't have guilt. She has done what she wants, as she wants. And really, this isn't surprising. Part of it has to do with the way she was raised, and part has to do with the fact that her morals are so different from the rest of society that she doesn't feel guilty.

Zuko has to have guilt. His morals, for the most part, are the same as the rest of the world's. He feels guilty over stealing Song's ostrich horse. His values couldn't allow him to leave without feeling something. This is what prevents him from robbing Tang and his wife when he was traveling without his uncle. He does have guilt, which stops more of his chakra from leaving the pool.

III. Fire

_The Fire Chakra, located in the stomach, deals with willpower and is blocked by shame._

Azula has no shame. She has nothing to be ashamed about, because she is the best. A prodigy firebender, a princess, a girl good enough to take on the Avatar and her uncle, the famous Dragon of the West. She always gives her best, which is the best.

Zuko is ashamed of many things. He is ashamed that he lost his honor, and later on, he feels ashamed that he must be a refugee and a beggar. His willpower is strong, but his shame brings him down. The Blue Spirit came from this, and it wasn't until the ordeal at Lake Laogai that he could let any of it go.

IV. Air

_The Air Chakra, located in the heart, deals with love and is blocked by grief._

Azula doesn't have grief. You have to care to order to have grief, and she doesn't really care about people. She doesn't love her father, she doesn't love her brother, and she certainly didn't love her mother. The only two people she doesn't treat with apathy, disdain, or hatred are Mai and Ty Lee, and you can barely call that a friendship.

Zuko has loved. More exactly, he has loved and lost. He loved his mother, and his mother disappeared. He loved his cousin, but he died at Ba Sing Se. He loves his uncle, who nearly died at Azula's hands. He's heard the saying better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all, but he doesn't really believe it. It's true though, and if he accepted it he would be better for it.

V. Sound

_The Sound Chakra_, _located in the throat, deals with truth and is blocked by lies._

Azula always accepts the truth. Always. She knows the sooner she can accept something, then sooner she can get over it and do something about it. But that's not the only reason. She knows she can twist it, turn it into a mixture of half-lies and half-truths to get want she wants. Of course, she has long since memorized a rule of war: _If your enemy cannot tell the difference between truth and lies, he cannot decipher you. _

Zuko would rather accept the lies. He lies to himself, really. That his father will welcome him back, that Azula really means what she says. He doesn't want to face the truth. He wasn't lying when he said that struggle makes him strong, but what he didn't know was that his inner struggle was bringing him down.

VI. Light

_The Light Chakra, located in the forehead, deals with insight and is blocked by illusion._

Azula isn't easily fooled. She knows that the four elements are connected, that balance is important for the world to survive. She just doesn't care.

Zuko prefers to be blinded. He doesn't want to accept the fact that he and Aang are connected, that his story parallels the Avatar's. His destiny is intertwined with Aang's, and he doesn't want to accept that fact. Not yet.

VII. Thought

_The Thought Chakra, located at the crown of the head, deals with pure, cosmic energy and is blocked by earthly attachments. The first six chakras are paired;_ _earth and water, fire and air, sound and light. Only the thought chakra is unpaired. This is because the seventh chakra is the only one to deal with matters outside the world. It is the thought chakra that the power to split energy comes from._

What drives Azula is ambition, and ambition deals more with the heavens then with the earth. There are other emotions, thoughts, which deal with the seventh chakra, but the one that is associated with Azula is ambition. Whether it is used for good or bad does not matter, because good and evil does not exist with cosmic energy. It just _is_. She does have earthly attachments, like pride, and some sadistic pleasure, but these are eclipsed by her ambition. Her ambitions to be the best, to be _perfect_, all allow her chi to flow through the seventh chakra and to the rest of her body.

It's not like Zuko doesn't have ambition, because he does, as great as Azula's. The difference between them lies in what they strive for. Azula strives for being better. Zuko strives for his throne, his country, and his honor. Honor is not truely earthly, but the others are. He lives for what he lost, and what he hopes to regain. It is not enough.

VIII. Epilogue

Azula's chakras flow. Swiftly, in some places, but she has accumulated enough chakra to easily split energy by this point.

Zuko has not. His chakras are all blocked, and almost no energy is left by the seventh chakra. He isn't close enough to the energy threshold necessary to create lightning, and this why it explodes when he tries.

This is why Azula truly is better, no matter what everybody thinks. Zuko could surpass her, and be better her for once, but he chooses not to. If he truly believed in himself, then he would be better then her.

But he doesn't, and this is why he fails.


End file.
